With temps in the high 60s and low 70s over the past several days, the weather outside is anything but frightful, as the holiday song goes, but when it does get ugly, the Georgia DOT is prepared and equipped to ensure the safety of our roadways this winter.

• Across the affected parts of the state, all Georgia DOT personnel will be on call.
• 2,700 Georgia DOT maintenance and construction employees are on active duty in northeast Georgia, northwest Georgia, eastern Georgia, western Georgia, the metro Atlanta area and the Macon area.
• 350 of the 600 DOT employees in Northeast Georgia will be on call this winter.

  
  The Equipment

• Tandem trucks and dump trucks with snowplows attached to the front to push the snow and ice from the roadways.
• Tandem trucks and dump trucks with hopper spreaders or tailgate spreaders attached to the rear to distribute the salt mixture used for de-icing the roads.
• Tandem trucks or dump trucks with both salt/rock spreaders and snowplows attached.
• Tractor type motor graders for moving snow.
• Chainsaws for removing trees and branches from the roadway.
• 52 Tandem trucks are fitted with snow plows, loaded with salt and stone, and ready to go to work in Northeast Georgia.

  Snow and Ice Removal

• Keeping the roads safe for emergency vehicles is our first priority.
• Interstates are cleared first, and then state routes from the most heavily traveled to the least traveled.
• The most common de-icing mixture is a 3:1 ratio of small ‘89 stone’ and sodium chloride (salt). It is affective in breaking up ice and snow until temperatures drop below 25 degrees.
• If temperatures dip below 25 degrees, calcium chloride is added to the stone/salt mixture.
• The tandem dump trucks mounted with spreaders can carry approximately 8 to 12 tons of the de-icing mixture.
• The Georgia DOT will bring in crews and equipment from other offices to help with a particularly hard-hit area whenever necessary.
• The tandem trucks and dump trucks are refueled constantly during a storm to prevent any lag time in the crews completing their routes.

  General Preparedness

• The Georgia DOT maintains a staging area in each county. These county maintenance buildings each stockpile salt, fine gravel, fuel and any supplies needed for emergencies.
• The Georgia DOT’s Highway Emergency Response Operators (HEROs) will be monitoring traffic along I-85, I-75, I-20 and I-285 in the metro Atlanta area in order to assist motorists with car trouble or to help clear accidents and stalls from the roadway.
• In the metro Atlanta area, the traffic operators at the Transportation Management Center in southeast Atlanta constantly monitor the traffic cameras along the interstates looking for signs that roads are icing up and relay those locations to the maintenance office.
• Communications personnel across the state will be at the Transportation Management Center and the district offices to provide constant updates to the media.
• We monitor all local weather reports on television and radio, in addition to receiving regularly updated weather information from national sources.

  
  Safety Tips

• Motorists should not pass a DOT dump truck spreading the salt/stone mixture, as stones may get kicked up at their cars and could break windshields. Please follow at least 100 feet behind DOT vehicles.
• Motorists need to be mindful of Georgia DOT crews working to clear the snow and ice from interstates and state routes.
• SLOW DOWN at least half your normal speed and use a low gear as you drive.
• If you come to a traffic signal that is not working, treat it as a four-way stop.
• Beware of black ice, especially on bridges and watch for fallen trees or power lines.
  

Northeast Georgia’s District One covers Banks, Barrow, Clarke, Dawson, Elbert, Forsyth, Franklin, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison, Oconee, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Union, Walton and White counties.

The Northeast Georgia Storm Operations Center will operate 24 hours a day during winter weather emergencies. We can provide up to the minute information.

The STORM OPERATIONS CENTER PHONE number is (770) 718-3924 .